Who told you that, sucker?

[AT&TDishman]

I called AT&T DISH for the third time since November about no fix to HDMI on my 411. Got the CSR to admit there must be a problem with the receiver and not the software. She was going to UPS a "new" 411 and waive the S&H. I said thank you, but I have DHPP and DISH Mover free and all is covered since I signed for 18 month deal. She said no way do you have free DHPP and DISH Mover, as only DISH customers can get that deal and AT&T only offers free installation for 18 month committment. Since she was an Egnlish as a second language person I thought I would call CS back to find out what's what. Lo and behold, the next CSR (fluent English) told me I was given incorrect info at time of leasing 622 and 411 in March and should not have been able to get them at all from AT&T, and no way would AT&T give me DHPP and DISH Mover for free. I explained I was given a new DISH account number to be able to get the 622 and 411. The CSR said that was impossible. Oh well, at least I am getting a "new" 411. Lesson learned: While AT&T DISH and DISH are the same, but different, they both lie!!!

P.S. I wrote (snail mail) DISH headquarters to see what they have to say about this mess.

 

[boba]

SBC(name before at&t) made a $500 million dollar investment in DISH Network so they could sell the service as they pleased. Your account number Identifies you as an at&t customer and different rules do apply.

 

[AT&TDishman]

SBC(name before at&t) made a $500 million dollar investment in DISH Network so they could sell the service as they pleased. Your account number Identifies you as an at&t customer and different rules do apply.

I wanted to drop AT&T DISH in March, but the CSR told me the "secret" that the CSRs for AT&T DISH and DISH are one in the same, and he (Luis) could "fix" everything and I would still be billed by AT&T. The fact I was told I would be getting DHPP and DISH Movers for free, even thought "a verbal contract is not worth the paper it is printed on (Yogi Berra)" they certainly took my $399 lease upgrade fees. I would think they would honor a CSRs mistake. Whatever happened to "The customer is always right."? Maybe they would like to refund my lease money and start all over with two free 622s this time.

BTW, the sweetheart deal between SBC and DISH was made because DISH needed the cash and SBC could bundle services for their 53 million customers.

 

[GaryPen]

I don't understand. The original CSR said they would send you a new unit and waive the S&H, and you called back to complain? WTF?

 

[AT&TDishman]

I don't understand. The original CSR said they would send you a new unit and waive the S&H, and you called back to complain? WTF?

Her attitude was that she was doing me a favor to appease me, not to honor the original promise of free DHPP, which includes a lot of other services which I apparently do not have now.
WTF = Want That Free?

 

[Kaydigi]

Her attitude was that she was doing me a favor to appease me, not to honor the original promise of free DHPP, which includes a lot of other services which I apparently do not have now.
WTF = Want That Free?

I agree with Dishman on this one.

 

[AT&TDishman]

Got a refurbed 211 for my 411 yesterday. The HDMI is working fine again. Hope it lasts longer than 2 months this time.

 

[Zero327]

Well your information regarding CSRs and AT&T arrangements is inaccurate. DISH CSRs reside in seperate centers from AT&T "Dish" CSRs. As a matter of fact normal DISH CSRs aren't permitted to touch AT&T accounts by policy, so that kind of negates those statements.

As far as appeasing you, is there something wrong with that? Many decisions are made within any given company to honor a promise made by an employee who gave misinformation, but it shouldn't be an expectation if an error is made that you get the cheapest deal or what's most convenient for you, or that it is even addressed if it's a practice. Ultimately the company gets to decide what is done. That's the difference between customer service and common sense, and there is a difference.

The customer "thinks" they are always right. But the customer stops being right with a company the instant their demands exceed what they're worth as revenue.

 

[KE4EST]

Your statements are confusing.

 

[abfabguy]

Zero..Walt Disney said that the guest (customer) may not be always right, but when they are wrong, let them be wrong with dignity.

If we all ran our businesses where the customers are always right, the business owners will always be broke...

 

[Zero327]

Zero..Walt Disney said that the guest (customer) may not be always right, but when they are wrong, let them be wrong with dignity.

If we all ran our businesses where the customers are always right, the business owners will always be broke...

Customers generally strip themselves of dignity by acting..."poorly" in the face of conflict. I'll never degrade a customer, but I WILL tell them if they're wrong, even if that isn't what they want to hear. Business is conflict in many senses. It's the customers that chant "The customer is always right!" as though it's self-explanitory gospel just because it came from their mouth. A gracious but incorrect customer will usually just be corrected and addressed properly.

A customer that will insist they're right and accept nothing less, then try to apply pressure will only make their situation worse and whoever is trying to help them less likely to do so, Those consumers receive no sympathy from me. I will ALWAYS go the extra mile (or ten) for an honest and courteous consumer. I will ALWAYS file the pains in my backside at the bottom of my docket for the day. They'll get service, and it will be to the level appropriate for them (aka. their problem will get fixed, but NOTHING further.) And the reality of that is... years after starting I get e-mails or phone calls out of the clear blue any given day to the tone of "Hey. You helped me out a while ago and I was wondering if you could give me a little help again." Must be doing something right.

I'll be the first to admit, CSRs have issues (gross generalization, but most of them do.) I've even heard things that CSRs aren't much better for DISH to deal with internally. But again, there's several thousand of them to several million customers, and I would guess tens of thousands more retailers. Everyone's solution to that is hire more people, but that wouldn't fix the gripes. It takes time to train people, and the instant DISH loses cost effectiveness it will reflect in programming costs.

Respect starts the instant the customer picks up the phone and it goes both ways. If the customer upon picking up the phone has already decided they're in the right, what they're going to get and that it's their way or the highway and the CSR better figure that out, before they've even dialed the number...there's no respect there. People that do that to me, DO get hung up on. CSRs don't have that luxury, technically speaking neither do I, but I can and will do so.

 

[DishSubLA]

I believe Dish signed a very restrictive agreement with SBC--now AT&T--that makes all AT&T/Dish customers truly AT&T customers, and when the agreement with Dish ends, AT&T keeps those customers and Dish is contractually prohibited from even contacting those AT&T customers even after the agreement ends (likely to keep Dish from wooing them away from AT&T--although a mass-mailing in a neighborhood could be a way around that clause). The reason Dish can't deal with an AT&T customer is because, unless it has changed, Dish doesn't even have a list of the AT&T customers. AT&T set it all up so that when they no longer contract with dish, they take all the AT&T/Dish customers with them, for keeps.

In other words, your problems are with AT&T because you are an AT&T customer.

I hope all ends well.

 

[tonyp56]

Truth is, the customer is always right! If I don't like the service I am receiving I should be able to demand at least what I was told to begin with--rather or not it was someones mistake that promised me such service. However, with the way things are now, a customer doesn't have much to bargain with. Quit buying from company A, to only find out that there are no others out there offering service, or if there is, no other company is any better at customer support, quality control, etc...

All companies should do a better job at taking care of their customers, and with that, all companies need to better train their CSR's, so that they don't do or offer something that ends up not being right, OP's situation as an example of that!

 

[Rexorg]

I have been an Illinois Bell/Indiana Bell/Ameritech Indiana/SBC Indiana/AT&T Indiana customer for over 38 years. I was a cable tv guy for 27 years, but was sick and tired of promise of digital cable since 2000 with no results. I was the first person in my town to have SBC/Dish (there was a news article in the local newpaper about SBC/Dish) according to the Dish installer out of Indianapolis who made the initial setup in February of 2004. At that time, the only difference between SBC/Dish and Dish was the name. When you called SBC/Dish Customer Service you really got Dish Customer Service and the CSR would help you according to the SBC/Dish terms, which meant you were not eligible for upgrades in equipment, programming, etc. as were Dish customers as I found out on several occasions.

When I signed up for SBC/Dish via landline (took 1.5 hours) the CSR was a Dish CSR (retired Milwaukee policeman) in disguise. At no time did he tell me that SBC/Dish would be different from Dish. The only thing he told me was that SBC could now bundle their services and offer SBC customers a discount. It is my understanding that when you call AT&T/Dish your phone number "identifies" you as an AT&T/Dish customer and the CSR puts on a Dish hat. The only time AT&T gets involved with AT&T/Dish is for billing.

Knowing now what I didn't know then, I would not have gone with SBC/Dish, but would have dealt directly with Dish for my service. My son-in-law in Fort Wayne, IN has Embarq/Dish and his service is worse than AT&T/Dish as the area is really Verizon and Sprint and Embarq only rent lines, towers etc. His installer came from 75 miles away and was a private contractor. However, my son-in-law can get all all the upgrades in equipment and programming without jumping thru hoops like I have to do with AT&T/Dish. Go figure.

 

[Jordan420]

P.S. I wrote (snail mail) DISH headquarters to see what they have to say about this mess.

They are going to tell you that you are a customer of AT&T, and if you have a problem you need to take it up with them, if they respond at all

 

[rcdallas]

AT&T and Dish customers can be identified by your account number. If your accnt number starts in 8272 its AT&T, 8255 DISH.

It is a fact AT&T customers do NOT get DHPP or Dish Movers free.

AT&T customers must talk to their CSR's, DISH CSR's can not access those account. Maybe back in the day, but no longer.

 

[ZandarKoad]

AT&T and Dish customers can be identified by your account number. If your accnt number starts in 8272 its AT&T, 8255 DISH.

It is a fact AT&T customers do NOT get DHPP or Dish Movers free.

AT&T customers must talk to their CSR's, DISH CSR's can not access those account. Maybe back in the day, but no longer.

I'll second this infromation as being accurate. When I call in to Dishnetwork's call centers to address an account I'm working on, the CSR will have to transfer me to their 'sales partner' whenever it's an AT&T account. Two different call centers.